Cavern/Intro to Tech class report plus bonus cave dive

[gxsr_sarge]

I'll hazard a guess that you weren't really "acing" things and that the left-right post confusion wasn't the only issue behind the provisional. But I find the lack of breadth and "drilled down to one event" evaluation disappointing from an agency I otherwise find recommendable.

rjack321, I respect your opinion and really don't want to jack this thread any further to start an agency poo-pooing campaign. I would agree that I wasn't "acing" things - there were otherwise a few fumbles here and there. After all, I had never been in a cave, especially under those simulated conditions. However, I was pretty spot-on where it counted (gas sharing, post shut downs, lost line drills, signaling, light deployment, etc). The instructor indicated that the fumble could have had more serious consequences in real life and I agreed. The fact of the matter is that if he would have just brushed it off, it wouldn't have registered as much as it does now.

I'm not disappointed one bit in the training, the instructor, the agency nor in my final evaluation - SO YOU SHOULDN'T BE ...

After all, I live 5 hours south of cave country, so it's my pleasure to "have" to go back for a few more dives.

 

[down4fun]

rjack321, I respect your opinion and really don't want to jack this thread any further to start an agency poo-pooing campaign. I would agree that I wasn't "acing" things - there were otherwise a few fumbles here and there. After all, I had never been in a cave, especially under those simulated conditions. However, I was pretty spot-on where it counted (gas sharing, post shut downs, lost line drills, signaling, light deployment, etc). The instructor indicated that the fumble could have had more serious consequences in real life and I agreed. The fact of the matter is that if he would have just brushed it off, it wouldn't have registered as much as it does now.

I'm not disappointed one bit in the training, the instructor, the agency nor in my final evaluation - SO YOU SHOULDN'T BE ...

After all, I live 5 hours south of cave country, so it's my pleasure to "have" to go back for a few more dives.

You make it to cave country in 5 hours from Miami...HOLY CRAP how fast do you drive?

Me in my jeep we take the leisurely 6-7 hour ride, top down, sunscreen on:blinking:

 

[gxsr_sarge]

You make it to cave country in 5 hours from Miami...HOLY CRAP how fast do you drive?

Me in my jeep we take the leisurely 6-7 hour ride, top down, sunscreen on:blinking:

90MPH. Is that too fast?

 

[jeandiver]

i dont think they did a jump
also the instructor can take you on a dive one level up...which would be the intro dive they did

Eyuppers .... ( LOL )

THAT"S HOW THEY SET THE HOOK ( )

Beano

 

[TMet]

After completing cavern my instructor took my wife and I past the sign at Ginnie, maybe 200' so not far. We went over the plan and it was very clear that it was a GUIDED dive and we were not to do this without he or another instructor until getting more training. Was a great dive and I was bitten even harder by the cave bug. We learned a lot from the dive since he ran the reel and showed us some tricks with reading the cave and how to stay out of the flow. It was also nice to actually see the cavern/cave since up to that point all of our overhead experience was a constant "problem", lights out, entanglement, air share, etc. Have to love spending 2 days in the water in caverns and having almost no clue what it even looked like.

 

[TSandM]

I had the same immediate knee-jerk response of, "Oh, dear, he's only cavern and in the cave . . . " until I thought about my first dive in my Cave 1 class, where we went into the cave for 20 minutes, and turned around and had light failures. We took ourselves in, and came out with problems, and that's a lot more challenging than going in with your instructor as your buddy, and coming out WITHOUT failures. Seems like what runawaylobster did was pretty reasonable, and as Jean said, "set the hook". One could also argue that it's better to see what someone is going to do psychologically with being completely in the overhead, before you get to see what they do by themselves, and handling problems . . .

I sure hope the instructor who provisionaled somebody for one resource-allocation mistake isn't the person teaching my Cave 2 class

 

[ScubaDocER]

I am not familiar with the concept of "provisioning" someone. I assume from the post that it is a penalty system. I took my Cave 2 in 2000 and I am not sure we had that. I am sure I made my share of mistakes but they were discussed and corrected by the next dive. That was probably the best educational experience that I have had diving to date and the one I am the most proud of. Your description of your experience in Ginnie brought back memories of my training. It still amazes me as to how easily they were able to turn off my primary light and steal my back up lights in the lights out drill!! Dealing with cave diving skills in Ginnie still seems to be the ultimate stress test for new divers to me. The task loading is compounded by having to deal with the flow. My fingertips hurt for 2 weeks afterwards until I learned to pull and glide properly. TSandM is correct about having to explore the diving in Mexico. The lack of flow coupled with the warmer waters and shallower depth as well as the gorgeous formations make cave diving in Mexico a must. Congrats on your certification and welcome to the beguiling world of cave diving

 

[TSandM]

"Provisional" is a GUE thing . . . If you take their classes, you can fail outright (rare), pass outright (depending on class and instructor, this may also be rare ), or be given a "provisional", which means you passed muster on some skills or criteria, but had deficiencies in others. You are sent off to practice and return for reevaluation.

 

[Cave Diver]

Great write up Kim!

NAUI question for those of you that are familiar with the course: Does NAUI teach 1/3's at intro level on doubles, or 1/6th's?

 

[SparticleBrane]

A provisional for one stupid screwup? Who was your instructor?

I doubt this is a mistake that would have killed you -- unless you were completely out of gas (and if that were the case I doubt you would have hesitated).

It is too bad you were stuck at Ginnie. 18 dives for your class? Figures... I am a new cave diver but I can't see doing training dives at Ginnie for 1/6th's -- that is practically useless in terms of bottom time. The amount of bottom time you get is just so short compared to something shallower such as Peacock or Madison. Then again Ginnie is great for learning flow.

NAUI question for those of you that are familiar with the course: Does NAUI teach 1/3's at intro level on doubles, or 1/6th's?

I am NAUI Cave 1 so I feel qualified to answer -- 1/3 of doubles within no-deco limits, 2 navigational decisions with no complex navigation.

I'm loving starting at 1/3rd's on doubles. This makes for nice long dives in shallower systems where you can get lots of bottom time (and thus, experience) but the no-deco limits keep you from staying in deeper systems like Ginnie for too long. With double 130s and 1/3rd's you can dive in Peacock or Madison practically all day without hitting deco limits...